Aamir Khan specially screens Satyamev Jayate in villages

Aamir Khan will hold a special screening of the first episode of his debut show Satyamev Jayate on community TV sets in villages in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh along with it's national television premeiere.

After months of hype and curiosity, D-day has finally arrived for Aamir Khan’s first TV show, Satyamev Jayate. The first episode of the non-fiction talk show will air today at 11 am across eight channels on the Star TV network, including four regional language channels which will feature dubbed versions. It will also be aired on national broadcaster Doordarshan.

To make sure the show reaches people in remote areas who don’t own TV sets, the actor will hold special public screenings of the first episode for them on community TV sets in their villages. Bhingara and Kahupatta in Maharashtra, Jhunkar in Madhya Pradesh and Khannapurwa, Lalpur Sarauta and Maaniram in Uttar Pradesh are some of the chosen villages.

“It is a relevant show for the whole country and we are making sure that it reaches out to all Indians, even in places with limited or no TV connectivity,” says Gayatri Yadav, marketing and communications, Star India. Based on the response to the first episode, Star will consider screening subsequent episodes of the show in this manner as well.

Telecom brand Airtel, Satyamev Jayate’s sponsor, has reduced the cost of SMS responses to the show from Rs 3 to Rs 1. Also, reports say that the revenue collected via SMS and from caller tunes of the show’s title track will be donated to charity.

Aamir’s dream to reach out to every Indian might hit a roadblock however. Recent news reports have said that Karnataka has banned the show from being aired because of a state policy that disallows dubbed versions of non-Kannada serials on regional channels. At the time of goin to print, Star TV officials were trying to work out a solution.